Accel Partners lays hands on another Indian ecommerce player; invests in BookmyShow.com

Global Venture Capital firm Accel partners have once again backed up an Indian e-commerce player ‘Bookmyshow’ by investing a capital worth INR 100 crore (US $18 million), according to distinguished media reports. Accel partners has invested in other Indian E-commerce companies like ‘Babyoye, Myntra, Flipkart’ etc. in past, showing their faith on Indian E-Commerce Market. Continuing the trend they have bought a significant stake In Big Tree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd which owns online movie and event ticketing company, ‘BookMyShow’ .

According to Times of India, after this transaction Accel has beome the largest shareholder of ‘Book MyShow’ , where transactions were made from both Indian and U.S funds of the firm. Commenting on the investment, Sameer Gandhi, Partner of Accel US said, “The Internet is playing a crucial role in bringing goods and services to the masses in India and will produce the next generation of Indian consumer franchises. BookMyShow.com has demonstrated exemplary execution in creating a large online community, and in our view, has the potential to become the pre-eminent entertainment destination for India. We look forward to playing our part in helping the company realize that vision.”

BookMyShow will invest these funds to increase their presence in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets by growing it’s non-movie ticketing business which mainly comes from ticketing events like concerts and sports. It will also expand its reach to mobile users who generated approx 10% of the total number of transactions of 2 million in last month.

On signing the deal, Ashish Hemrajani, Founder & CEO of BookMyShow.com said, “The funding from Accel comes at an interesting inflection point in our journey and is a strong vindication of our efforts to create India’s largest online entertainment ticketing platform. We look forward to leveraging Accel’s global Internet experience and Network18’s continued support to expand our footprint and help take our customer experience to the next level.”

Network 18 Group, which was holding 60% stake in Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, has sold a minority stake in the company to Accel Partners for around US $12 million, with Accel also taking a stake in Bigtree through primary issuance of shares, with overall investment ticket being larger than $12 million, according to a report by Mint.